Corporate Culture: 4 points to consider

4 Points to Consider on Corporate Culture

In our field some people like to invoke the idea of culture as if addressing a mystical phenomenon that floats around in the air and can only be contemplated with reverence and awe. In this view corporate culture has a power we either accept or are crushed.?

We certainly need to consider culture in all we do, but I would like to add some thoughts for consideration.??

1.?????Culture is dynamic.??It is not fixed for all time, unalterable.??Rather, culture is dynamic.??It is subject to change, perhaps just a bit at a time, perhaps resistant to new approaches, perhaps only changing very slowly.??But it is inexcusably lazy just to “accept” a culture that breeds misconduct.

2.?????Effective compliance programs have an impact on culture.??If a program is effective and generates its own stories of “how we do things here” that can become part of the culture of the organization. The story of the gutsy little compliance professional who keeps a thumb in the dam to prevent a compliance disaster may become a hero story that grows throughout the organization.??While cultural transition does not happen immediately, it is a mistake to assume compliance must accept the organization’s culture as it is. When dealing with the culture we must be realistic but not fatalistic.

3.?????Organizations also have subcultures.??The mere fact that you think you understand the corporate culture does not mean you understand all the groups within that organization and their distinct cultural characteristics.??For example, it is likely that a long-established legal department in New York has its own stories and its own way of doing things.??The sales office in windy Wellington in New Zealand may have deep-rooted ways of doing things that are alien to the tradition-bound finance department in London.??What may be a perfect match in one unit may fall flat in another.??

4.?????Don’t get too caught up in the collective.??There may be a very strong culture and it may push people in a particular direction.??But don’t assume this tells you everything about everyone in the group.??We should know the culture, but assess each individual separately and not assume, no matter how strong the culture, that everyone will respond to your messages and ways of doing things in exactly the same way.??